AFP, TAIPEI: Taiwan's opposition on Friday unveiled its plans for a new professional armed forces to cope with the growing military threat from China.
Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang and frontrunner for the March 20 presidential polls, called for an end to the compulsory 20-month call-up of every man over 18.
“The quality, not quantity, is what matters in a war today,” Lien told a press conference.
The KMT's military experts said the new system, which would train soldiers better but cut their numbers from 380,000 to 250,000 by 2008, was needed urgently to deal with China's growing superiority.
China has maintained its claim over Taiwan, which has been governed separately since nationalist troops fled there in 1949 after being defeated by the communists in the civil war. It said it would invade if Taiwan declares independence.
“We must shape up our manpower as we proceed with arms build-up, and make ourselves ready before 2010” when the chances of a Chinese invasion would increase, said Shuai Hua-min, former head of the National Defense Management School and a member of a KMT think tank.
The defense ministry warned in a report last August that China could attack the island after 2008 unless Taiwan continues to strengthen its defenses.
Washington also warned last year that China's military modernization was giving Beijing the ability to launch a surprise attack on Taiwan that would keep US forces in the western Pacific at bay.
President Chen Shui-bian said last year that China had 496 missiles pointed at the island. The United States said Beijing was annually adding 75 short-range missiles targeting Taiwan and was developing weapons and tactics to counter technologically superior US forces.
Under the KMT system, men would receive call-ups for only three months of training before being made reservists.
It would add an additional 60 billion Taiwan dollars (1.8 billion US) to the government's estimated 500 to 700 billion dollar bill for its current 10-year arms build-up.
The Democratic Progressive Party of President Chen Shui-bian dismissed the KMT proposal as a vote-winning tactic ahead of the election.
